The present invention relates to an integrally driven linkage for transferring power from a drive source to a target machine which may be used with industrial and/or commercial equipment, including material handling devices.
Machinery, typically equipped with a drive system which may include mechanical drives, control systems, hydraulically powered devices and pneumatically powered devices and is widely used in industrial and commercial applications. The manufacturing process frequently demands several independent machines acting in concert to achieve acceptable product results. Therefore, each piece of equipment is typically linked through controls interlocks to cause a plurality of equipment to behave as if it were a single machine. Further, each element typically uses its own drive and power source.
Despite the widespread acceptance of such groupings of equipment the cost of the equipment is excessive due to redundancy in the number and style of the various drive systems required for each piece of equipment. To illustrate, it can be expensive to provide a separate motor, transmission and control system for each machine in a grouping. The cost is compounded as additional machines are incorporated into the grouping.
In some applications, power from a single power source is provided to a plurality of different machines. There are a wide range of complex transmission and power dividing components used in connection with industrial and commercial equipment. The complexity of conventional power distribution systems makes them impractical for many applications. This can be particularly true when the drive source and the destination machine move relative to one another.